3D Graphics and Animation Minor

If you feel comfortable at the place where technology and design collide, a 3D Graphics and Animation minor can take you to the next level, whether you’re coming from an artistic, scientific, or computer science background.

Earning this undergraduate minor through our school immerses you in the processes of 3D film, games, virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D printing. You’ll design, model, texture, animate, light, and render 3D computer animated products, creatures, characters, props, scenery, and artifacts.

Discover how to create professional-quality work

Take advantage of our top-class facilities to learn the process—from preproduction through production and postproduction—for films, video games, environments, motion graphics, commercial graphics, visual stories, scientific simulation, 3D printing, and virtual and augmented reality.

Students develop production-quality projects with advanced aesthetics using the entire 3D production pipeline.

What’s your major?

Art and Design: Drawing and Illustration, Painting, Sculpture, or Visual Communication Design

The 3D graphics and animation minor allows you to transition from the creation of physical objects to creating and animating virtual items. Combining your skills in visual communication with our expertise in digital storytelling and motion graphics will make you dangerous in marketing and media companies the world over.

Computer Science, Computer and Information Technology, or Informatics

The courses in this minor will enhance your software development skills to include the rendering and animation of computer graphics (CG) assets. This skill set is useful in game design and development, 3D simulation, and other sectors.

History or the humanities

Your 3D graphics and animation courses teach you the techniques involved in recreating artifacts, digital scanning methods, and photogrammetry. You can utilize these techniques at the cutting edge of displaying, interacting, preserving and understanding the past and its artifacts.

Extend your time further to collaborate with Media Arts undergraduates to bring the past back to life in virtual reality.

Health care and Biomedical Informatics

You can further your mission with the power of 3D. This minor lets you transform the abstract and the microscopic into grand visualizations that highlight your research to broad audiences and better educate patients.

Careers

Possible careers for students with a minor in 3D graphics and animation include:

Plan of Study

Prerequisite

The minor requires knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, which may be demonstrated by test, portfolio, credential, or by taking a course that covers Photoshop, such as CGT 11700 Illustrating for Visualization and Communication, CGT 21100 Raster Imaging for Computer Graphics, or NEWM-N 102 Digital Media Imagery.

Required Courses (15 cr.)

NEWM-N 243 Introduction to 3D (3 cr.) or CGT 11600 Geometric Modeling for Visualization and Communication (3 cr.)
NEWM-N 341 Lighting and Materials (3 cr.) or CGT 34000 Digital Lighting and Rendering for Computer Animation (3 cr.)
NEWM-N 343 Hard Surface 3D Modeling (3 cr.)
NEWM-N 345 Organic Modeling and Texturing (3 cr.)

Choose one:

NEWM-N 342 3D Animation (3 cr.) or CGT 24100 Introduction to Computer Animation (3 cr.)
NEWM-N 340 Motion Graphics (3 cr.)

Students must earn a C or higher in each course to graduate with the 3D Graphics and Animation minor.

Admissions and Advising

The minor is open to IUPUI students in any major except Computer Graphics Technology and Media Arts and Science. Media Arts and Science students may pursue the 3D Graphics and Animation specialization instead.

Email Jill Mathews at jilmathe@iupui.edu to declare the 3D Graphics and Animation minor. For academic advising, contact the advisors for the minor at LuddyIN@iu.edu or 317-278-4636.

Learning Outcomes

Perform basic modeling, texturing, lighting, and animation.
Conduct self-directed exploration, expressing and documenting ideas and themes in both written and spoken form.
Perform lighting and texturing within a digital scene using various techniques.
Deliver production quality simulations with advanced aesthetics using a 3D production workflow.
Set up creatures and characters for film-quality animation.
Execute entire production pipeline for using characters within a 3D film composite or CG production.
Design and implement from preproduction, to production, to postproduction a creature and character for films, video games, or augmented reality.
Model, texture, articulate, and render characters for low-resolution or high-resolution applications.
Create a posed moment of an organic model for display in a film, video game, or augmented reality.
Deliver productions for games and environments, visual short stories, or scientific simulation.
Apply advanced 3D modeling
Demonstrate mastery of 3D production by creating high quality portfolio models.
Apply 3D concepts across multiple 3D software platforms.
Apply modeling, texturing, and rendering techniques to organic models.
Present and critique projects.